A.k.a. drudgery, servitude
and ingratitude. In other words, I'm a housewife and mother. J

Key
responsibilities

Technically
speaking, I'm in charge of the house. However, none of the kids does a thing I
say, and come to think of it, neither does my Other Half. On the other hand, I'm
not the one doing all the housework. Mwhahahahahaha!!!!!Nononono, my Other Half works and does
the the hoovering, makes the beds, bathes the ankle-biter etc. etc. I'm not
very good at this housewife and mother lark, I don't mind admitting. J I have to do the washing, ironing and cooking
though. Still, you can't have everything...Can you...? <fx: evil grin>

I'll
be glad to hear what you think of my web page, but keep it clean and
respectable please - this is a family computer.

Biographical Information

Let
me see now. Hmmm. Well, I was born on May 4th 1965, which makes me
older than I feel. I'm not sure if I believe in daily horoscopes, but I do seem
to fit the profiles that I have seen for Taureans - stubborn, resistant to
change etc. I'm 5' tall, and it looks like all of my kids will be taller than
me by a long way! Fiona and Caitlin already are...! My childhood ambitions
were: to be taller than my Mum, live in a council house, own a Mini, have a St
Bernard dog, red wellingtons and 6 kids. Well, I've pretty much failed on all
but the council house, though I did own a Mini briefly a couple of years ago.
I'm only taller than my Mum now, because she's got rheumatoid arthritis, so it
doesn't count.

I
have a big sister, Jacqueline, who's 4 years older than me. She's married, but
has no children. I think mine drive her nuts! (This would explain why I don’t
see much of her!) She works for the Civil Service/Ministry of Defence.

I'm
not in particularly good shape. For some reason. I was born deaf in one ear,
and with one thing or another, have ended up having a great deal of operations
over the years for different things, but mostly cysts in various places - and
"wimmins' trouble", as my Grandma would have so euphemistically put
it! All of my children were born by Caesarean and I'm registered disabled due
to a bad back, but I have tried not to let it interfere with my life (to be
honest, I just ignore it as much as possible, but its getting harder as I get
older :-( ). When I was 16, doctors broke my toes deliberately and set them
with pins and plaster casts. Trying to climb the steep hill to ClydebankCollege for 6 weeks like that was fun -
my mates used to walk behind me in case I tipped backwardsJ

My
Dad, who's from Nottingham, was in the Royal Navy, and when I was born he was
in Borneo, for some reason. [Note to self -
ask him if he saw any orang-utans while he was there]. Come to think of it, his
beard was a distinctive orang-utan colour too... *grin *. He had heard of my
birth by telegram, a day late, so to this day he usually gets my birthday (or
age!) wrong. My Mum is from Edinburgh.
They retired to Cyprus but
came back to the UK
in 2006.

I was
a naughty child. I drank greenfly killer once (no, I really don't know why
either, I mean, it smells awful, so goodness knows how I could have
drank it!). I cut up my sister's birth certificate. I sneakily drank all of the
sherry in the cabinet. I ran away from home a few times. The list goes on, but
I don't think I ever did anything out of real malice and a lot of the time it
was just a case of me believing everything people told me (I'm pretty
gullible). Like the time my friend convinced me to go trekking to EdinburghAirport
from Dunfermline (9 yrs old, on my bike in my slippers, across the ForthRoadBridge) because she said her brother worked there and
could put us on a plane to America.
D'oh! What makes it worse is why I went (checks over shoulder:
leans closer to screen and whispers) I wanted to see Donny Osmond.(blushes furiously with the embarrassment of it)
*grin *

I
lived in Cowplain, near Portsmouth
until I was 8, then I started moving all over the place really. Dad left the
Navy when I was 12, and went to work in Saudi Arabia. I've been to schools
in Cowplain, Dunfermline, Rosneath and finallyHermitage Academy, inHelensburgh after we moved to Clynder (it's a two street village, basically).
I left school in 1981, with 5 SCE 'O' grades, and went, as I said before, to
college in Clydebank, where I gained more, as
well as some vocational qualifications, equivalent to SCE Higher grades.

Holidays
were then spent out with Dad - I worked in a nursery in Jeddah for 3 months to
stave off boredom, and all I will say about Saudi Arabia really, is that it's
warm and sunny... That's about all it had going for it from my point of view.
Thankfully I wasn't there for long, as I had to come home to start my state
registered nurse (SRN) training, in Carlisle,
anyway.

Over
half way through SRN training, I did a really dumb thing. I packed it all in -
but it made sense at the time. I married a family friend in 1985, Alastair (aka
Ally) whom I had known since I was 11y.o. He had been an electrician, but had
then joined the Royal Navy). I took a course at AnnieslandCollege in Glasgow, and I'm a trained Medical
Receptionist now - I always wanted to be a nurse though, so I regret not
finishing my qualifications.

Three
years (and 5 houses up and down the UK) later, in Jan 1988, my first
daughter Fiona arrived, but unfortunately, by the time she was 2 y.o. Ally and
I split up. This meant yet another move, this time toDumbarton, where I've managed to settle (for
now!). Fortunately for me, a year later in 1991, I decided to go on one of
those "Employment Training" courses because they had a nursery for
Fiona. I gained 4 RSA's in typing and word-processing, and an NVQ in Business
Management. Oh yes, and a new Other Half,Iain, aka YargI,
who's a wee bit younger than me [3]. Amazing really, what you can find, when you're not even
looking! One six week romance later and we were living together. He currently
works for the MOD/BT, as a telephone systems analyst/security and
helldesk-thingummy person. Like Ally, he also came from Garelochhead. Now that
I think of it, of the four relationships I have had in my life, three lads came
from there, and I married two of them! Must be something about the place,
besides being the biggest village near to my Clynder home! hahahaha!

In
Aug 1994, my second daughter Caitlin arrived, and I married Iain. In that
order. Caitlin was, and still is, a very difficult child, with behavioural
problems. In April 1998 she also had to have a kidney removed. Oh, but what a
cutie she can be! (which mostly makes up for the difficult stuff, and is her
saving grace). [Aged 7 Caitlin was diagnosed as having Attention
Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Which made some sense. So we
weren’t mad/bad parents after all...Well, that's a relief! * grin *] In 2010 Caitlin was
additionally diagnosed with Aspergers
Syndrome (AS) which is an Autistic
Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

In
September 2005 when I was the grand old age of 40, my last baby, Andrew
arrived, so that's the family completed JHe is absolutely gorgeous and spoiled rotten. Caitlin is being a very
good big sister – he definitely brings out the best in her J

Fiona
decided to leave home in 2007. It's not that she hated sharing a room with her
sister (ha ha), and I know that she misses her brother and my cooking, but
well, she is all grown up now. She's taken an HNC, HND and BA in Supporting
Learning Difficulties at college and university over the last 3 years and we
are very proud of her achievements. She now works with children in respite
care. At some point in the future she may take her post-grad and qualify as a
teacher, but for now she's going to get on out there and gain experience in the
field.

I've
done lots of different paid employment over the years, including cleaning jobs,
the civil service (UBO) and asst. shop manager. My last full time job,
which I loved, ended in November 1997, and was as a night auxiliary nurse in a
hospice. My ex-husband,Ally, was killed aboard a submarine, HMS
Spartan, at that time, and Fiona and I needed some time together, which
unfortunately, my employer failed to understand, so I quit the job. She misses
him very much - and I still miss him more than I could have imagined was
possible.

From
April 2001 until October 2002, I was working as a part time Special Educational
Needs assistant, with autistic children. However, I had to leave, as Caitlin
and her school and health meetings had to take priority.

Now
I'm just loving being at home with Andrew, and enjoying every precious moment.
I'm not sure I'll be fit to work again anyway, but this is enough for now (I'll
take this over a wage any day of the week, full time parenthood is seriously
underrated, as well as underpaid!)

Personal Stuff

I'm
told that I'm a rather boring person. Ho Hum. I like quilt making(click the link if you want to see ‘em!), puzzles and playing games on the
computer. I like all sorts of books, especially Christopher Brookmyre,
and James Herbert horror (which IMHO are better than Stephen King's). Oh
yes, and Discworld (c) books by that Terry Pratchett bloke. Jolly good
they are too! I hang around (well, mostly 'lurk' these days, but I do peruse) a
newsgroup called alt.fan.pratchett, I am a member of the Guild
of Fans and Disciples (GOFAD), and I have my B.F. degree and Doctorate from UnseenUniversity.
Information on all these things, and lots of other Pratchett-related stuff can
be found via The L-Space Web.

I
love animals, especially dolphins and orang-utans. I like to watch
documentaries on television. I like Eastenders. I don't like Coronation Street, Brookside
or the Aussie soaps. I liked Star Trek / Next Gen. but I couldn't get into all
that B5 and Voyager stuff, sorry. I like all kinds of movies. My taste in music
is mostly stuff from the 1980's, but I also like The Beatles, The Eagles, Dr
Hook, Simon & Garfunkel, the 1812 Overture and Beethoven's 5th
Symphony. My favourite band for some time now has been Erasure. That said, I
seem to have a thing for Depeche Mode too. Robbie Williams floats my boat, and
Fiona took me to see him in 2006 at Hampden Stadium. I had a great time J I'm really into chocolate.
Galaxy(tm) for everyday preference (hint, hint - those who need to know, take
note!) but I like quite fancy stuff too. Maya Gold, mmmmmmm... J

Cheese
makes me sick, yet I love pizza; and I couldn't eat liver/heart/kidneys/tripe
even if you paid me to. I just can't forget their original functions. Think
about it! I could probably become a vegetarian, but I like steak 'n' onions too
much! I won't eat veal on principle. Nor rabbit.

Having
smoked since I was 11 years old, I finally gave up after 25 yrs, on April 1st
2001 (ha ha ha ha, jokes on me!). I don't miss smoking at all! Thank goodness
for Zyban!I'm pretty proud of myself
actually - I'd tried absolutely everything to give up, including
willpower several/many/lots of times. Giving up smoking ranks up there with
having my babies in My Top 10 Achievements, I must say. JWhen I gave up smoking I saved up my money and began getting mytattoos…

I
intensely dislike alcohol. It gives me a headache just thinking about it
for the last 20 years or so. Well, it's not that I dislike it,
but it really dislikes me. Thus my AFPtitle (see sig. below)
Thanks Jani. Thanks also to esmi, for making me welcome on AFP. (I still say
she was on Gid's rota for Demon newbies that week!), and for giving me the
franchise on her *hugs * and Trina for the franchise on *kisses *. Thanks also
to elfin for encouraging me to make a web page all those many years ago; also
Xmorpheus and Dragon Prince for AFProposing, and Chris and Miq for accepting my
AFProposals - you're all a great bunch of people. Special
thanks go to Iain’s mate, Dave McEvoy for helping me make this web page,
initially! J

Feetneets

[1] Just in case of
legal stuff: - from (c) Terry Pratchett's Discworld book "Interesting
Times". If you haven't read the Discworld books, I strongly recommend that
you do. They are extremely good.

[2] Named Lesley
Marina, but only called Lesley in official places like the doctors, and by my
friend Alison, who met me in hospital :-) My family and other friends have
always called me Marina - big sis was a Stingray fan!. I also answer in
person to 'Grymma' :-)

[3] OK, I admit it.
Over 6 yrs difference is more than a 'wee bit'. But there are big gaps between
the kids ages too, so <shrug>...

Almost last, but most definitely not
least, here areThe Kids. I guess they count as 'personal stuff',
eh? You can see that Fiona and Caitlin haven't changed a bit . Heartbreakers,
the lot of em!